Skaters (band)
Skaters is a fictional American pop punk band formed in 1996 when Zac Smith, Drake Fayes and Freddy Thomas (quit the band in 2001) all got together and decided to form a band when they were twelve. They went mainstream in the mid 2000s when they released the singles "All Night" and "Sick of School" in late 2003 which gained them international success as well. They have currently released six studio albums and are planning on releasing a seventh one in October 2009 (this year, of course) and are "expecting it to be a critical acclaim". We'll just wait and see. History Formation (1994-1996) When Zac Smith was thirteen, in mid-late 1994, he showed interest in starting a band after listening to music from 1980s and early 1990s bands that he favored, and they were always punk rock music and pop rock music. In fact, Zac hated the life he was living and was desperate to just get away from his parents and start a band and make it big as a music artist. His parents always told him people had to be extremely lucky for that to happen, and that he had no chance at success, which made him further driven to wanting to be famous and popular. Zac was also a big follower of the Internet when it became successful, so he began looking online for a bassist and drummer who would be willing to play in his band with him in late 1994-early 1995. Eventually, Zac found two people: bassist Drake Fayes, who was almost thirteen and from Atlanta, Georgia, and Freddy Thomas, a drummer from New York City who showed interest in being in his band. He scheduled meetings in his basement so they could play together and get to know each better, to which they eventually moved down to Los Angeles, due to the fact that flying every weekend was too expensive and both of each of the bassist and drummer's parents had been thinking about moving to California, strangely conviently. They had thought of many names for their band, such as SFT, The Johnsons, Friendly Enemies, and Clo-Ride, but eventually decided to name themsevles Skaters, as they all seemed to agree on that name the best. Zac, Drake, and Freddy, throughout mid-1995, began playing cover songs as the opening band for other, more successful bands that played after them in the concert. They played at any concert they could be accepted into, which was very few, but still enough. Enough people liked their style to which people were going up to them and asking them to write their own music. When Zac, Drake, and Freddy were all fifteen or sixteen, they stopped playing live at concerts and, throughout late 1995 and early 1996, began writing music which often related around pop rock/pop punk, due to their influences from earlier bands that they had always liked to listen to. But eventually, they decided to trash it when they were rejected by many record labels who said that they were too pop punk for the label. When their parents found out about what they were doing, or at least, trying to do, they just laughed and said that they could leave whenever they feeled that they had enough album and single sales to live off of, which made Zac, Drake, and Freddy all mad and driven to want to be successful and famous, as said earlier. But they wanted it more this time and all, you know. Skaters (1996-1998) Eventually, however, in February 1996, they signed into a record label who accepted them, which was Bla Records, and they decided to keep their old album and start recording it, which took a few months (February-May 1996) before they released it on July 16, 1996 and with one single, entitled "This Place", which they released on August 14, 1996, after playing live in over fifty different concerts, and people started to get to know the band and that helped sell the album and single, despite the fact that neither sold enough to chart anywhere that it was released to (the US and Canada). They launched a US tour to try and help it sell more, which lasted from September 1996-February 1998, despite the fact that, for a tour that was almost a year and a half long, they only played in forty different shows across the country. But as a starting band, that wasn't all that bad, to them. They figured they were a success, and were excited to, after taking a few months time off, to start back up again soon. Every Morning (1998-2000) In May 2008, the three began working on a new album, which they had pre-determined to be entitled Every Morning, since they had previously written a "really good song" called "I Can't Take It Anymore", which was going to be in the second album, they had said in many interviews that they had been in. By September 1998, they had all their music written (along with a few shows they had put up to entertain viewers along the way) for the album and recorded it during September and October of 1998 with a slated December 19 release for the album, but it was pushed back to January 11, 1999, due to the fact that they hadn't finished recording till early November and still had needed to determine a cover and make a track listing and all. Finally, on January 11, 1999, when the band members were all eighteen and nineteen, they released their second album, entiteld Every Morning, and headlined a tour which they named the "Morning Tour of America", in support of the album, which lasted from April 1999-July 2000, and tha managed to make their album sale over 500,000 copies in the US alone, with the help of the singles from the album, which were "I Can't Take It Anymore" and "I Don't Care", and peaked at #107 and #119 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, which was their most successful songs that they had released so far. This helped them regain some underground popularity, or at least locally, and people began to know who they were, which made them very happy, as they had played in shows all across America and parts of Canada now. Over It All and Freddy's leaving (2000-2002) In late 2000, after taking some more time off, they began working on a new, unnamed album, but halfway through the songwriting, in early 2001, Freddy left a note on the basement garage door that said that he was not satisfied with the slow popularity and direction of the band so he had decided to leave it. Drake and Zac, out of anger, thought about simply disbanding the band, but ultimately decided to simply find another member, which they found locally, not wanting to have to deal with someone from out of town, and eventually found, after many auditions, drummer Brad Tims, who was two years older than Drake and Zac, and he helped them write the rest of the album, of whose writers were credited with Freddy's songwriting, too. In mid-late 2001, they began recording their third album, which they had named Over It All, and released their first single on September 12, 2001, just a day after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, and it was called "Over It All", which strangely had a relation to the Twin Tower attacks, even though it was written and recorded before the events happened. However, it did not manage to peak on any charts. On November 29, 2001, they released their third album and a tour throughout 2002 followed, ending in November of that year. They released two other singles with the album, entitled "Later", and "Forever With You", which was their most successful single yet, peaking at #67 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #55 on the Canadian Hot 100, which made them moderately popular amongst California itself, something they were quite proud of, since this album had been certified Platinum with over 1,000,000 albums sold in US, which was a lot. A whole lot. Sick of School & Mainstream success (2003-2006) For their fourth studio album, before even starting on it, they did a lot of promotion acts for it, playing at over five hundred shows throughout 2003 before finally starting writing in October 2003. They had decided that they would broaden their limit of pop punk style in their album, with songs from the album such as "Running Away", "Down Again", "Moving On," and "Burning to the Ground" all leaning to the alternative rock side of Skaters' overall music, something they rarely had done in the past, if ever. They recorded their album from January-March and released the album on April 23, 2004, and called it Sick of School, and the album opened to much success, launching the band into mainstream popularity, which had been their goal for the passed ten years that they had been involved with music. The singles "Sick of School", "All Night", and "Parents" were international hit singles, peaking at #4, #8, and #15 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming radio-hits worldwide, along with their album eventually saling over 7,000,000 albums and being certified 7x Platinum. They headlined their first world tour, which lasted from May 2004-January 2006, their longest tour ever, which gained them much success in the music industry, becoming one of the best known bands of the 21st Century. To Everyone We Know and fall in popularity (2006-2008) Too excited to take off any time after their world tour, the band began writing music throughout early 2006 and recorded in the studio all during May and June. They finally released their album on September 14, 2006, and had called it To Everyone We Know, but the album was met with mixed reviews from critics and fans alike. The album was said to be the "lesser half of the previous two Skaters albums", while the fans questioned whether Skaters should be still writing so much pop punk music while they are in their mid-20s, saying that they should "grow up", or whatever. Skaters released five singles with the album, but none were very successful compared to Sick of School's singles. The band toured briefly from November 2006-May 2007 and in Canada from October 2007-Janaury 2008, but eventually quit after not as many fans liked the new material. Being You and renewed popularity (2008-2009) In May-September, the band had not revealed this, but they had been working on new material which they had completely finished in late September of 2007, but decided not to release it until all of their touring for the To Everyone We Know US tour. The band released their sixth studio album, entitled Being You, on January 18, 2008, which had more pop punk songs in it than before, which was announced before its release, and fans who were worrying that the album wouldn't be good, but the album was met with positive reviews from critics and fans alike, which gained them popularity amongst album and single sales, as the songs "Being You", "High School", "Graduate", and "Hanging Out" all reached the top 30 of the Hot 100, with "High School" even reaching #10 in early 2008 when the album was released. The album went on to sale 2,000,000 albums, which was pretty high for being released not even two years ago. The band launched a world tour from March 2008-Janaury 2009, and took off a few months to rest from the exhaustion the encountered from the tour. Untitled Seventh Studio album & Boring Pictures (2009-present) The band began working on new material in April 2009-July 2009 and are currently in the studio working on it as of early August, which they have set for an October 2009 release. They say that this album "will be the best yet" and will likely be titled Say My Name or Go Away. It turns out that they decided that they would start a new band as a "side project" of their main band, and they would entitle it Boring Pictures. The band said that Boring Pictures would be an alternative metal band, which it is. They released the self-titled debut album, Boring Pictures, on August 17, 2009 with two singles, released on August 6, 2009, named "Bringing the Pain" and September 12, 2009, named "Beneath the Fire". The first one managed to peak at #51. Personnel Current *Zac Smith – Lead vocalist/guitarist (1996-present) *Drake Fayes – Bassist (1996-present) *Brad Tims – Drummer (2002-present) Former *Freddy Thomas – Drummer (1996-2001) Discography Main article: Skaters discography Albums *(1996) Skaters *(1999) Every Morning *(2001) Over It All *(2004) Sick of School *(2006) To Everyone We Know *(2008) Being You Singles *"This Place" *"I Can't Take It Anymore" *"I Don't Care" *"Over It All" *"Later" *"Forever With You" *"Sick of School" *"All Night" *"Down Again" *"Parents" *"To Everyone We Know" *"Blaming You" *"Simple" *"You Can't Change Who I Am" *"Second Place Don't Cut It" *"Being You" *"High School" *"Graduate" *"Hanging Out" *"Fair" *"The Mall" *"That Chick" See also *List of fictional things in Misencyclopedia Category:Music artists Category:Music